The strong Acropolis chess tournament starts today
many strong players will participate
Report by Chessdom.com

The international chess tournament Acropolis starts today in Greece. 15 GMs over 2500 ELO will participate in the competition. Top seeded will be GM Ilia Smirin, the winner of last year’s tournament. Many players from the just finished Kavala tournament will join the competition - GM Gelashvili, WGM Anna Rudolf, FM Josip Asik, etc.

Participants

1 GM Smirin Ilia ISR 2637
2 GM Graf Alexander GER 2621
3 GM Gelashvili Tamaz GEO 2612
4 GM Parligras Mircea ROU 2588
5 GM Svetushkin Dmitry MDA 2587
6 GM Kotanjian Tigran ARM 2578
7 GM Banikas Hristos GRE 2572
8 GM Kolev Atanas BUL 2565
9 GM Mastrovasilis Dimitrios GRE 2563
10 GM Salgado Lopez Ivan ESP 2532
11 GM Romanishin Oleg M UKR 2530
12 IM Rasmussen Allan Stig DEN 2519
13 GM Mastrovasilis Athanasios GRE 2518
14 GM Zubarev Alexander UKR 2517
15 IM Danielian Elina ARM 2495

More here: http://previews.chessdom.com/acropolis-2008

Source: Susan Polgar Blog

It’s Saturday Open Forum! Welcome to Dallas, site of the 2008 US Open!

Cheparinov and Grischuk are leading the Sochi Grand Prix. Kamsky and others have pulled within 1/2 point of the leaders.

7 rounds are in the book in the World Junior and World Girl’s Championship in Turkey.

Sasikiran has a full point lead at the Category 15 Najdorf Memorial in Warsaw. Many tournaments are happening right now.

It’s Saturday Open Forum! What would you like to discuss? Please keep it clean.

Source: Susan Polgar Blog

After 7 rounds GM Howell of England and IM Braun of Germany have taken over the lead from GM Li of China. The young female Chinese phenom Yifan Hou remains in contention with 5.5 points, only 1/2 point from the lead.

1 GM HOWELL David 2561 ENG 6
2 IM BRAUN Arik 2533 GER 6

3 GM LI Chao B 2590 CHN 5½
4 GM SAFARLI Eltaj 2527 AZE 5½
5 WGM HOU Yifan 2557 CHN 5½

Full standings: http://wjcc2008.tsf.org.tr/component/option,com_turnuva/task,show/dosya,24/Itemid,24/lang,en/

Source: Susan Polgar Blog

After 7 rounds, IM Harika takes over the clear lead. She is one of the favorites to win the tournament.

Full standings: http://wjcc2008.tsf.org.tr/component/option,com_turnuva/task,show/dosya,23/Itemid,23/lang,en/

1 IM HARIKA Dronavalli 2461 IND 6

2 WGM MUZYCHUK Mariya 2413 UKR 5½
3 WFM NIKOLOVA Adriana 2242 BUL 5½

4 WFM ABRAHAMYAN Tatev 2277 USA 5
5 WIM MIKADZE Miranda 2258 GEO 5
6 WFM OZTURK Kubra 2188 TUR 5
7 WFM NAKHBAYEVA Guliskhan 2170 KAZ 5
8 WIM MAJDAN Joanna 2323 POL 5
9 PREETHI Rajkumar 2183 IND 5
10 WGM MAMEDJAROVA Turkan 2284 AZE 5
11 WIM SOUMYA Swaminathan 2293 IND 5

Source: Susan Polgar Blog

Source: Susan Polgar Blog

Chess Legend vs Chess Wonder Boy P1 million showdown slated

By Marlon Bernardino
Cebu Daily News
First Posted 09:43:00 08/09/2008

IT’S all system’s go for the richest sports event in the country when the undisputed Chess Legend takes on the Chess Boy Wonder in a P1 Million showdown to be held in Quezon City, Davao, Iloilo and Cebu.

Eugene Torre, Asia’s first grandmaster, and Wesley So, presently the world’s youngest grandmaster at 14, will face each other in a one-on-one duel consisting of ten games.

Two games each will be played in Quezon City, Davao, Iloilo and Cebu and if the match remains unresolved, another two games will be played in Quezon City. A knockout game will ensue if the duel is tied at 5-5.

This was announced yesterday by the event’s project director lawyer Samuel Estimo after Quezon City representative Matias Defensor agreed to bankroll the match in a meeting last Monday.“Magandang proyekto ito kaya nagpapasalamat tayo kay Cong. (Mat) Defensor na sumuporta sa event na ito,” said Estimo, a former secretary-general of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP).

NCFP region 11 coordinator James Infiesto is pleased when he learned that Davao City is one of the four venues of the event dubbed as “Dream Match.”

“We are privileged and honored that our city is one of the four venues in the Torre and So one-on-one duel,” said Infiesto. “Maganda ito, legend versus future of Philippine chess.”

“Tiyak aabangan ito hindi lamang sa Pilipinas kundi pati sa buong mundo,” said Reginald Tee, consultant and spokesman of Wesley So who is currently playing in Turkey for the World Junior Chess Championship.

The match will be held at a date to be agreed upon by the two GMs preferably after So and Torre have fulfilled all their international tournaments.

“Baka February 2009 after sa event ni Wesley (So) sa Corus,” said Tee.

Torre will leave on August 8 for the United States where he will also visit his daughter, Nicolle, who is now based in Alaska.

According to Estimo, the two chess luminaries had drawn their three previous games with Torre nearly winning their last encounter.

The first to score 5 1/2 (5.5) points will win the match and the P600,000 winner’s prize while the loser will earn P400,000. Another P100,000.00 will go to the winner of each leg while the loser will take home P50,000.

Source: sports.inquirer.net

Source: Susan Polgar Blog